Willie Mae

Originally released in 1958, this first-person narrative in an earthy vernacular was written by Kytle ( The Voices of Robby Wilde ) on the basis of conversations with Willie Mae Wright, a black woman who endured poverty and racism as a domestic worker in the South. Daughter of a Georgia construction foreman, Willie Mae recalls her father's anger over losing a job to a white foreman and describes battles with her vindictive stepmother (``I'd have called her a polecat except I really didn't have nothing against polecats''). But her worst troubles began after her father's death, when she was forced to work as a servant for an endless stream of white employers, some of whom insulted her humanity; even when they were generous she could run into difficulty, as when she was arrested for wearing jewelry her employer had lent to her. When her cousin was shot for voting she briefly considered abandoning Georgia for the North. Willie Mae's life is a testament to the courage and strength of a generation of black women. Ladner is the author of Tomorrow's Tomorrow: The Black Woman . (Jan.)